This invention relates to mechanical clamps and, more particularly, to a low-profile mechanical clamp including a cam for pivoting a clamping member over a fulcrum.
In the automotive quality gage and fixture trade, clamps are used to hold parts to simulate their installed position in or on an automobile. These parts, typically molded, include stand-off features extending from the backside of the part for connection to a contact point of the automobile. In quality checking, these parts are held by the stand-off features to surfaces that simulate the contact points of the automobile. These simulated contact points, or "net" surfaces, permit attachment of the molded part, usually by clamping, so that the part can be assessed for quality, such as stresses or buckling resulting from the connection of the part to the net surface.
Current mechanical clamps require more open space between the part and the surface supporting the net than is usually available in quality testing setups. Thus, these limited spaces do not provide enough space for the swing of an arm of a clamp. Accordingly, quality checking of molded parts attached to nets is accomplished by applying the clamp to the finished front or exterior surface of the molded part. But clamping to the finished front surface of a part impedes quality inspection of the finished front surface. Worse, it also creates a clamping point on the front surface that will not be present when the molded part is installed in the automobile. That is, the clamp exerts a force at a point that would be distant from the actual contact point in the automobile, as well as distant from the simulated contact point of the net surface. Further, this distance from the actual contact point and the clamping force at that distant point causes distortion to the part and its connecting stand-off feature that skews the quality check. Thus, check results cannot properly indicate repeatability and reproducibility.